The mission log of an alien on earth.

A calming ritual

2012-07-16T21:26:24+00:00

Some people breathe deeply to calm themselves. Others clean house, or take a walk. I sit down, spread out a pad in front of me, and clean my weapons. I haven’t done that for a long time, because I keep most of them mothballed, except for the ones I carry every day, and I never fire them, so they don’t really need cleaning. They’re mostly made of corrosion-resistant materials, so all they need is a blast of compressed air and a drop of oil here and there to refresh them.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy the ritual. Pry out a pin or a screw, slide it apart, and you suddenly have several chunks of machined and molded parts that don’t resemble a weapon anymore. Brush them gently – so. Wipe them down with a drop of oil – thus. Press them back together in the proper order, and you have a functional weapon again.

It took me a long time the other night to work through disassembling, cleaning and reassembling the smaller ones. I have more of them than I remember, which means I should probably sell the ones I didn’t remember (since I don’t use them). The larger ones will have to wait until I have another block of time.